More than two years after an earthquake devastated downtown Santa Cruz, a state commission dealt an aftershock to the district's historical status. The State Historical Resources Commission on Friday recommended that Santa Cruz's landmark Pacific Garden Mall lose its place on the prestigious National Registry of Historic Places. Commission members said they had little choice because the district is too decimated to qualify for the list.

UC Santa Cruz officials said a federal report on campus sexual harassment is filled with errors and omissions. University officials responded in a 22-page letter to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights report that charged that UC Santa Cruz did little to assist female students who complained of harassment, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. "We simply didn't have our day in court," UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Karl Pister said.

John I. Kitsuse, 80, a sociologist at UC Santa Cruz known for his theories on deviant behavior and crime, died Nov. 27 at his home in Santa Cruz of complications from a stroke suffered the previous day. Educated at Boston University and UCLA, Kitsuse taught at the University of Washington, San Diego State and Northwestern University before joining the UC Santa Cruz faculty in 1974. He retired in 1991.

A key committee of the U. S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this month on spending $8 million to buy the last privately held part of Santa Cruz Island for the construction of a Channel Islands National Park visitors center. The National Park Service wants to build a park center on Santa Cruz Island to protect Anacapa Island from being overused, said Mack Shaver, superintendent of Channel Islands National Park.

Karl S. Pister, former dean of UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, was appointed Friday as interim chancellor of UC Santa Cruz. Starting Aug. 1, Pister, 65, will serve for two years, replacing UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Robert Stevens, who announced his resignation five months ago. Pister has been a leader in issues of budget, private fund raising, affirmative action and engineering education, UC officials said.

The Santa Cruz City Council voted 5 to 2 to support an ordinance that would be the nation's first to ban job and housing discrimination based on looks and sexual orientation. After a raucous 4 1/2-hour public hearing, the council decided to redraft the measure to better define a controversial "personal appearance" portion.

The City Council of this fervently liberal seaside city voted unanimously Tuesday to pass the nation's highest living wage: $11 an hour, or $12 without benefits. Like most of the 50 other living wage ordinances nationwide, Santa Cruz's would at first only cover full-time workers for the city or for-profit companies with city contracts. Most city workers already make more than $11 an hour.

Nathan Strange scored 17 points to help Chapman defeat winless UC Santa Cruz, 79-59, in a nonconference men's basketball game Sunday at Chapman. Strange played a team-high 25 minutes for the Panthers, who had 11 players score. Chapman held Santa Cruz to 21% field-goal shooting in the first half and 26% for the game. Damon Williams scored 12 points for Chapman (7-2), which led at halftime, 36-18, after shooting 50% from the field.